By:Al Wicklund
MONROE Even the weather seems to be working against the settlement of the 13-monthlong contract-bargaining process between the Monroe Township Education Association and the Board of Education.
The MTEA was scheduled to vote on a proposed three-year contract Monday, but, when an approaching snowfall caused schools to be closed that day, the association’s vote was postponed.
When the MTEA votes, its members cast their ballots at voting places in the district’s six schools and other work sites which were closed Monday.
The vote has been rescheduled for today, Friday, Stacy Grimaldi and Caren Castaldo, co-presidents of the MTEA, said at Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting.
“If the weather interferes again (snow was predicted), we will vote Monday, March 12,” Ms. Castaldo said.
Board President Susan Cohen said the board has scheduled a meeting for 6 p.m. Monday at the Brookside School.
“If the association approves the contract, the board will vote on the proposal at that time,” Ms. Cohen said.
A tentative agreement was reached between the two groups’ negotiating committees Tuesday morning, Feb. 27, after an all-night bargaining session with Paul Glasson, a mediator appointed by the state Public Employment Relations Commission.
It was the third mediation conducted by Mr. Glasson.
The board and MTEA agreed to ask for a mediator when negotiations stalled after the MTEA voted down a tentative agreement in December
The bargaining process began a year ago, Feb. 14. MTEA members have been working under the terms of the previous three-year agreement which ended last June 30.
The current tentative agreement was achieved in two lengthy sessions. The last session went for 13 hours, starting on Monday, Feb. 26 and ending the following day at 5 a.m. The previous negotiation, Feb. 12-13, went for 10 ½ hours.
While the negotiating committees reached an agreement, there won’t be a new contract until the agreement is ratified by the MTEA membership and the full Board of Education.
Until both the MTEA and the board have voted in favor of the agreement, the terms of the contract will not be made public.
Both sides have expressed hopes that a contract can be agreed upon.
Ms. Cohen has said she is hopeful and is looking forward to a successful conclusion to the bargaining process.
Ms. Castaldo has said she and her members want the contract settled fairly.
She said she believed the tentative agreement addressed the issues that caused the previous tentative agreement to be voted down by MTEA members in December.
That previous proposal, which called for a 5 percent pay raise in the first year of the three-year contract and increases of 4.5 percent in each of last two years, lost 337-19.
Ms. Castaldo said her members, after that vote, expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed structuring of the salary guide the formula that distributes pay increases based on years of service and academic achievement with some contract language and with health-care-insurance provisions.
Under the terms of the current contract, Monroe teachers start at $30,535 a year. The top of the scale for teachers with a bachelor’s degree is $57,285.
The average annual salary for a Monroe teacher is $48,930, while the average clerical salary in the district is $33,973.
The MTEA represents teachers and other school district employees, including secretaries, paraprofessionals, school bus drivers, cafeteria staff and library coordinators.
